Free Motion Foot

I never thought I could do free motion quilting because I can't lower the feed dogs on my machine. Earlier this year (yes, I've had this machine for 15 years) I discovered I had a raised plate that covered the feed dogs (not pictured here), so in March I ordered a free motion foot. A month later it finally arrived. Zack picked it up for me and when I got home, he had taken apart the pedal of my machine and was trying to figure out where it belonged. I nearly had a heart attack. I told him where it actually belonged and we tried to put it on, but we couldn't figure out how to attach it (I doesn't help that I don't have a manual for my machine). I took it back figuring it was the wrong foot, but the guy at the store called and said it was the right one and to bring in my machine, so I went back and he put it on for me.

Yesterday I finally made my first attempt at free motion quilting:

It's a bit of a mess. Clearly, I need more practice; especially on controlling my stitch length.

This flower turned out nicely, though with this much quilting you can hardly tell there's any batting:

I also took this opportunity to use up left over bobbins, and I had a brilliant brain storm for keeping them organized:

It fits nicely in the drawer of my sewing table and now I don't have to dig through a pile of bobbins trying to find an empty one. I knew saving film canisters would come in handy!